For employers
Find out whether your broker is paid more than your peers pay theirs.
Unbrokered benchmarks what your plan pays its broker against comparable employers’ Form 5500 filings — with the sources, sample sizes, and methods your finance team can inspect.
Benchmark your broker →The fiduciary angle
Three things keeping benefits leaders up at night.
A fiduciary duty you can’t benchmark
Fiduciaries of ERISA-covered health plans must prudently review plan service arrangements. Broker compensation is a plan expense, and independent peer context can support that review.
A CAA disclosure with no context
You received the disclosure. The dollar figure means nothing without knowing what comparable employers pay. We supply the context.
Hard to question what you pay
It’s difficult to ask whether a fee is normal without data. Walk in with a peer-benchmarked percentile and the conversation changes.
From benchmark to negotiation
How to use this at renewal
The benchmark tells you where you stand. These five steps turn it into a renewal conversation, and a record of it.
- 1
4–5 months out
Get the full disclosure in writing
Send the disclosure-request letter so every form of your broker's pay, including commissions and bonuses paid by carriers, is on paper before any quotes arrive.
Uses: Disclosure-request letter
- 2
3–4 months out
Decide what you want changed
Take the benchmark to your committee: where the plan sits, what the gap is worth, and which benefit lines run above peers. Agree on your asks before the broker presents.
Uses: Benchmark report and Talking Points
- 3
At the renewal meeting
Ask the questions, and get answers in writing
Start with the questions specific to your findings, then the standard set. A broker who is paid fairly can explain it plainly.
Uses: Renewal question set
- 4
If the answers fall short
Test the market
Issue the RFP outline to other firms, this cycle if time allows or for the next one. Often the credible option to go out to bid is what moves the number.
Uses: Broker RFP outline
- 5
When you decide
Put the decision on file
Record your own determination and the reasons for it, with the benchmark attached. Whatever you conclude, a dated record of how you decided is what shows a prudent process later.
Uses: Reasonable-compensation determination memo
Every step uses a document in the Broker Compensation Benchmark Report. See a sample.
Heading into renewal
Renewal Readiness
$1,999–$2,999 one-time
Not a second PDF. A time-boxed renewal workspace that includes the Broker Compensation Benchmark Report, then adds the working tools your team uses until you sign. The complete product is priced by covered lives because renewal complexity scales with plan size.
One-time purchase. Full access for up to 4 months — enough to cover your renewal cycle from first quotes to signature.
Already bought the $199 report? Your full $199 applies if you upgrade within 60 days.
See your price →- Broker Compensation Benchmark Report PDF included — download and keep
- Up to 4 months of renewal-season access
- CAA disclosure gap-check
- Renewal Talking Points + Prep Kit (letter, RFP, question set)
- Interactive Fee Modeler — run what-if fee scenarios
- Ask Unbrokered — plain-English Q&A on your own numbers
- Peer broker firm comparison: median per participant per month, bonus share, and trend by firm
The fiduciary register
A reasonable fee is a fiduciary's call. Now you can show your work.
Plan fiduciaries are responsible for making sure what the plan pays its broker is reasonable. Most have never seen what reasonable looks like. Unbrokered shows you where your broker's compensation sits against peer employers and gives you a dated, sourced record for your file.
See where your plan stands →